Jan
28
2010
Effective Presentation Preparation using Mind Mapping
Author: adminWhether giving a professional or an academic presentation, most people use some type of notes to help guide them through their delivery. These notes usually consist of the key topics to be covered, done in a manner that the presenter can easily refer to while speaking. There are many different methods you can use as the first step towards clearly organizing notes for use in an effective presentation. However, few, if any, will have the advantages found in Mind Mapping. Mind Mapping is a method of outlining that involves spatial, rather than linear, data organization, using colors, words and images associated with the data. With Mind Mapping, the presenter can make use of these colors, visual images, words, and symbols in order to more easily organize the topics he or she wants to cover in the presentation.
Creating a Mind Map to Organize Key Topics for a Presentation
When using a Mind Map to organize the key topics for a presentation, the main subject of the presentation should be represented by a central image, located in the center of the map. Next, each of the key sections of the presentation, such as the introduction, or the conclusion, should be listed on “branches” that are attached to the main subject. The topics to be covered during each section of the presentation should then be listed on “child branches” that are connected to the section “branches”. Lastly, the subtopics within each topic can be attached to the topic “child branches” by “twigs”. The attached Mind Map diagram gives an example of the key topics, that should be covered during a presentation on Marketing Research, as organized in this manner.
Using the Mind Map to Create Notes for the Presentation
Once the key topics for the presentation have been organized using a Mind Map, the next step the speaker will want to take is to organize these topics into notes he or she can use when delivering the presentation. Creating presentation notes from your Mind Map is quite intuitive, because all the information to be presented is already clearly “mapped out”. Moreover, since the Map contains picture and images associated with the topics and subtopics, the presenter has already likely begun to make mental associations surrounding the topics, making it easier for him or her to memorize the topics.
The simplest way to assemble speaking notes from a presentation Mind Map is to print out the notes, transcribe onto note cards, or other materials that will be used in the presentation. The speaker can also, if he or she chooses, use the Mind Map itself to give the presentation. Either way, the speaker can make use of the visual pictures, images, and colors her or she used in the Mind Map to facilitate the memorization of the points. In the attached Mind Map diagram, there is a picture of survey next to the topic “Consumer Surveys”. The speaker can therefore visualize the picture of the survey when thinking of the first topic to be covered, and easily recall this picture when giving the presentation. The advantage of Mind Maps for effective presentations, therefore, is a way to organize information that is more easily processed and recalled, facilitating a smooth presentation delivery.
